Some of the MBCers were away at a different game (more on that to come), so a split-squad kind of day. Here with the report is James "Coney Island" aka "Brooklyn Biologist" Madden:
Welcome to another episode of This Week in Mission Baseball!
Another wild and wacky game, no joke! So many errors all
around. Seriously, raise your hand if you did NOT have multiple errors in this
game. I sure did! Plenty of "AAUGH" to go around. What else? We had
another instance of "well, looks like this game is over... oh wait, he's
not running for home for some reason... or, oh wait, they just blew an easy
double play to end the game... or, oh my god, HR caught that blast to save the
tie!" Yes, the game should have been over at least four times, but wound
up an 8-8 tie. Let's give out some awards and see what happened.
SWINGS OF THE WEEK: Hands down this goes to Chris. He
self-reported a 5 for 7 day, with most of those hits being well struck. Also,
allow me to welcome you to the Warning Track Club of Portero, Chris! He joins
James and Aaron! He blasted one to deep left field that one hopped to hit the
fence and missed hitting a dog by inches. Indeed, a group of young folks were
picnicking against the left field fence, they asked me if they were in
danger/can anyone hit one this far, and I did tell them yes! One or two pitches
later, and their dog got the sh*t scared out of it. Later on, Chris bombed one
deep to left again that looked like a sure game-winning blast in the 10th, but
HR ran it down! Honorable mentions: all of Chris's other hits.
PITCHES OF THE WEEK: Another hands down award, this time to
Sean, who pitched 10 innings and really deserved the win and not a crappy tie.
Here's one of those "oh, this game should be over" moments. Bottom
ninth, one out (Sean just struck me out on a high fastball!), and home team has
men on 1st and 2nd. I lend myself to play third. Immediately an easy grounder
gets hit right at me, I field it cleanly, and think to myself, "Well, I'll
sling this over to second, then on to first for the double play. Game over,
visitors win." Only I proceeded to throw the ball into right center field.
That should have ended the game, PART 1. Sorry, Sean! The home team would then
tie it up. Interestingly, the home team then should have won the game PART 2,
but New Mike pulled a Nick W. and decided to hold at 3rd despite having a
clean, easy walk home to win the game. It was like a replay of last week! Why
don't Mission Baseball baserunners trust their legs? Seriously, he could have
walked backwards home to score the winning run. Then again, he is recovering
from a hamstring injury... In the top of the 10th, the home team could have
protected a lead and then won the game, but a weird "throw it behind
yourself after fielding a line drive" error happened in left field,
allowing another tying run to score. Should have been the end, PART 3. Finally,
in the bottom of the 10th, Chris blasted another one to left field that looked
certain to drive in the winning run, but HR tracked it down and made an
extended catch! Should have been the end, PART 4! However, we decided to call
it 8 to 8 tie after that, so it was the end.
GLOVES OF THE WEEK: I'll toot my own horn again here,
despite my horrible missed double play ("the final snowball that started
the avalanche," as Sean put it). I had back-to-back web gems in the top of
the 4th to extinguish a rally. A diving catch in shallow center of a Sean line
drive to rob a hit, and then a not-so-nice throw out of Greg at first from
centerfield to rob him of a hit, too. There were baserunners threatening to
score; lo, they did not! Honorable mentions: Mike N. made a tumbling catch of a
hard line drive to rob me of a hit, HR made that tie-saving running grab in
left to rob Chris, and Greg made a beautiful chest-only stop of a short-hopped
pitch at one point that I made a mental note of. Also, New Mike made an
interesting basket catch of a bloop to center and then doubled the runner off
second. 'Twas quite funny. He had it lined up, then clearly lost it in the sun
(desperation body language kicked in), then he found it at the last moment to
make a waist-level basket catch. Quick toss to second = double play!
AAUGH!
- Early in the game, Sean blooped one between short and
center. Chris and I couldn't get there. It drops for a single. I scoop it up
and flip the ball casually at Chris, not noticing that he had already turned
his back to walk back to the infield. Weak little toss trickles away, Sean
advances to 2nd, score slater. Aaugh!
-See the four times
the game should have ended above. Aaugh!
WORD OF THE WEEK: Defense. It was bad! So bad, in fact, that
there was chatter about mid-week fielding drills.
No comments:
Post a Comment